The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Michael Brown, its director, have taken a lot of heat for the delayed and bungled Katrina relief operations. With such memorable moments as blaming the victims for staying and claiming the federal government was unaware of the situation at the convention center, one has to wonder how Brown managed to land a job overseeing the most important disaster relief organization in the country?

The answer: His college roomate. Before joining FEMA, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association. Not only was Brown's previous work experience limited entirely to judging horses, but he was fired from that job for "supervision failures." Luckily, after he was fired, he old college roomate and previous head of FEMA, Joseph Allbaugh, landed him a job where apparently experience doesn't matter.

The White House talking points lately seem to be pointing blame to the local level, the the Democratic governors and mayors involved with the situation. Granted, state and city officials bear a part of the burden for this failure. But if any heads should roll, Brown's should be the first. FEMA and Brown mismanaged the situation beyond forgiveness.

This tragedy has failed to bridge the partisan divide the way 9/11 did. However, if there is one thing that liberals and conservatives seem to agree on, it is that the relief effort was mismanaged and Brown is to blame. But does the buck stop at Brown? Why did the president allow someone into his administration based on nothing more than the good ole' boy system?

Quote of the Day: ''He's [Michael D. Brown] done a hell of a job, because I'm not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm,'' said Kate Hale, former Miami-Dade emergency management chief who oversaw emergency response during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. "The world that this man operated in and the focus of this work does not in any way translate to this. He does not have the experience.''

More: Link courtesy of Donklephant, new Fema Failures blog documents the failures, Crooks and Liars has more.